At last year’s NAB, DaVinci released the first software-only version of Resolve, which it had acquired earlier from the renowned color correction company. Pricing at only $995, the Mac-based software brought a recognized name from high end color finishing suites down to where the average editor and color finisher could afford it.
DaVinci Resolve 8 released at this year’s NAB. Important new features include multi-layer timeline support with editing, XML import and export with Apple Final Cut Pro 7 and Adobe Premiere Pro, support for OpenCL processing (improved results on Apple iMac and MacBook Pro computers), real time noise reduction, curve grading, advanced multi-point stabilization, and automatic stereoscopic 3D image alignment.
Also announced that the show was a free version of the color correction program: DaVinci Resolve Lite. Available for download this past month, the app is in a crippleware version but instead limits projects to SD and HD resolutions, two color correction nodes, a single processing GPU and a single RED rocket card.
Now a useful video has been uploaded to Vimeo. This is a pretty good place to start, as the instructor Warren Eagles of International Colorist Academy takes you on a straightforward path to setting up for your first session.
You can find more help by visiting Blackmagic Design’s page devoted to the freeware version. Creative Cow’s page devoted to DaVinci also has info on using the Lite version.
